Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Culachi

We’re not a family who’s going to make it to a sunrise Easter service. Or any church service, actually, but we do have an Easter tradition in our household: Italian Easter bread, or Culachi.

It’s a laborious process, making this Paschal bread, so it’s better left to the menfolk.

That being the case, T orchestrated the Culachi making, from start to finish, with just a bit of help from the rest of us.

First he made the dough and let it rise…….


Next, it needed a good kneading


then lots of stretching.

Now comes the fun part, twisting and braiding the dough into the desired shapes.

The most beloved loaf in my husband’s family is the “Jesus” loaf. I kid you not. Just take a look:

Yep, that’s poor ol’ Jesus being twisted up on the cross. With an egg for his head.


But he sure did put on a happy face. (Merrell does not really get the part about suffering on the cross for our sins, apparently - but then I told you we aren’t church going folk.)

Next comes the baking (boring).

Then, finally, the loafs are pulled from the oven, painted with a slightly beaten egg,

and, viola, pure joy.


If you're wondering where the cooked Jesus is, we ate him straight away, ripping sections off and scrapping them right in the butter dish.

Delish.

10 comments:

Pat said...

yum!!
and how lucky you are to have an Italian cooking husband.
Nonnie

Me, You, or Ellie said...

How lovely Beth! And *so* much more appealing than those "buttered bread braids in all their wretched flavors".

Yummy.

Ellie

Pickles and Dimes said...

Is culachi similar to kolacky, which my Czech husband's grandmother makes?

Me, You, or Ellie said...

LOL Ellie, I was about to comment on the similarity (or lack thereof)to the bread braids! These look delish, what a handy man you've got there!

Jacquie

Logical Libby said...

Jesus is better with butter.

Anonymous said...

Ah carbohydrates, how I love you in all your delicous guises.

still sunny in PA said...

I'm sure Jesus would appreciate Merrell putting a smile on his face.

My 9 year old doesn't like the idea of calling the day Jesus gets nailed to the cross "Good" Friday...she think we should switch it with the day after Thanksgiving (sales are Good, death on a cross is Black)

I think you need to share the recipe so we have something to enjoy when we get back from church :)

Me, You, or Ellie said...

Mom - yes, lucky me.

Ellie & Jacquie - Lol, I never even thought once about those wretchedly flavord buttered bread braids. Blech.

P&D - yes, I think so, I found all sorts of differnt spellings for breads from varoius European countries: Kolachki, Kolacky, Kolachy, Kolace, Kolachi, Kolache, Kolachke, although many of these said sweet breads, and the Culachi is not sweet, it has cracked black pepper in it.

Libby - that is simply hilarious, and very, very true in this case.

Me too, XUP.

And, Dot, I'll look into getting the recipe :-)

beth

Hsin-Yi said...

Did you know that if you Google "culachi", the blog link is the first result?

Me, You, or Ellie said...

Hsinny! How cool. How're you doing? How's that baby coming along?

Ellie